# Pokemon Sword and Shield Shiny-Hunting Guide



## IndigoClaudia (Apr 28, 2020)

This guide was taken from my website (which does not currently exist yet). This "article" is in "beta" mode so please correct me if anything seems off. I will link to this article once my website is released. Until then, enjoy it here.

*Pokemon Sword and Shield Shiny-Hunting Guide*
Hellooo, and welcome to the guide for shiny-hunting in pokémon sword and shield. Let’s get started

*The basics*
(Feel free to skip this section if you know a good amount about pokémon)

Shiny pokémon have been around since Generation 2, and players have always been trying to get there hands on shiny pokémon. People want all there favourite pokémon in shiny form (except for shiny Lucario which is disgusting... just saying). People are always trying to use hacks to get shiny pokémon as well, which is definitely a way to get a shiny… but isn’t it cheating? It’s far more satisfying to catch one yourself.

*The Mechanics - Catching*
Pokemon sword and shield introduces all sorts of crazy shiny mechanics.

The most basic of these mechanics is the rate of finding a shiny. If I walk into a pokémon or enter a random encounter at any moment, I have a 1 in 4096 chance of finding a shiny pokémon.


That is a very low chance!


This here probably isn’t super reassuring, but I’ve never been interested in Shinies before.

Before I got interested in Shinies, I only had 4 shiny pokémon.


A hacked crabominable I got in a giveaway
A shiny Nuzleaf (I found in the grass randomly in Ultra Sun)
A shiny Machamp, I found randomly in LGPE
And finally a toxapex i traded said machamp for.
Now, the chances of me finding those shines (specifically nuzleaf and machamp) were super low…

Now, there is a way to find more shiny pokémon… way easier, and here’s how you do it. But be warned as it will take a while.
You will need to complete the galar Pokédex. All of the pokémon. This will take a while and you will need some friends to help you out…

but once you’re done with that there is a doctor in Chichester who will give you the shiny charm if you complete the Pokédex. And then the chances of encountering a Shiny are 1 in 1365.

This means that in my entire life, if every day I were to find 1 pokémon, I would have 3-4 shinies.
Which, let's be honest is still not great. It's fine and all... but your not likely to find many more shinies like that. That's where the complicated mechanics go.

So let me explain how encounter "chaining" works.

If you scroll over to the pokedex entries of certain pokemon (as in like in your pokedex not on like serebii), than you can see a peculiar number... it says "number battled." This is incredibly relevant to shiny hunting.

To put it simply, the more of a species you battle (knock out or catch), the higher chance of finding a shiny. But wait! There's more. The more you battle a species, the more likely you are to find brilliant pokemon too, meaning that you have a higher chance of finding pokemon with amazing stats who are also shiny, which is kind of a win-win situation.


Number of Pokémon BattledChance w/ Shiny CharmChance w/out Shiny CharmChance of Brilliant Pokémon20No dataNo data1.3x501 in 10241 in 20481.6x1001 in 8191 in 13652x2001 in 6831 in 10242x5001 in 5121 in 6822x

Ok, so this is great! but there is one more element to it.  ACTUAL CHAINING!! if you battle 25 or more of that specific species of pokemon in a row, without battling any other species (so you run away instantly if you find another) than this is what happens.


Number of Pokémon Battled chained (in addition to 500 pokemon battled).Chance w/ Shiny CharmChance w/out Shiny CharmChance of Brilliant Pokémon25+1 in 455No data2x


And one last thing. Pokemon Sword and Shield inroduced Square Shinies and Star Shinies. Guess which one is rarer?

Square (In the 60's i'm sure people would have gone out of they're way to avoid square shinies). So let me explain the mechanics. There is a 1 in 16 chance of getting a square shiny. That's not great, however, battle chaining boosts that chance up to a 15 in 16 chance witch is considerably better odds.

Great! Now we know how this all works, so lets walk you through it so your on your way to getting a shiny!


*Walkthrough - Catching*
Before you get started, here are some tips


Make sure the pokémon at the head of your party is planned well, and has false swipe
Don't use shiny pokémon while finding shinies because thats another animation right there!
Turn of battle animations. I know, i love battle animations as much as you do but this will save you SO MUCH time... trust me on this one.
Alright, say i want to find a shiny wooloo.


So i'll have a gallade at the front of my party, and i'll have his moveset be


Revenge - A super effective move against wooloo, so this will knock them all out. This is intentionally placed as the top move, making things go fast.
Slash - a Move with high PP
False Swipe - For catching said wooloos
Hypnosis - A similar reason.
It doesn't have to be a gallade, but make sure you use a pokémon with a super-effective high PP move before you try shiny hunting.

The next thing you should do is battle all the Wooloos/Whatever other pokemon. All of them. In a row. Run away from every other pokémon. Do nothing but this for several hours and before you know it, you should find a shiny. Aren't you so Proud?

*Mechanics - Hatching*
Of course, catching is not the only way. We also have hatching! Yipee!

Hatching is unique because it allows people to get pokémon with good stats, as well as the fact that you don't have to spend a ton of attention on it, it's more of an idle thing (kinda).

So, similar to wild pokémon, there is also a 1 in 4096 chance of getting a shiny with hatching. And with the Shiny Charm, 1 in 1365 chance, again. But there's one more interesting mechanic, known as the Masuda method.

The masuda method is pretty simple. Breed two pokémon from 2 different languages and there is a 1 in 683 chance of getting a shiny. With a shiny charm and the masuda method, it's a 1 in 512 chance, and it's very straightforward, and will probably save you some time. Here's a little table for this.


Regular HatchingShiny CharmMasuda MethodMasuda Method & Shiny Charm1 in 40961 in 13651 in 6831 in 512
Alright, now that we know this, i'll walk you through hatching your first shiny

*Walkthrough - Hatching*
Alright, your first step is to pick a pokémon. For example, Ralts. Next step is to get a Ditto. The best bet is to catch a rare ditto at the wild area's resident Ditto Den (These ditto's all have great IV's so with any luck the other person will also trade you one with good stats). Now go online if you can, or trade with a friend who plays pokémon Sword or Shield in another language, and recive your fancy "foreign" ditto (pro tip: if your ditto is unnamed, you should name it something. My Ditto is french and i named him Pierre). Now, put the Ditto and your Pokemon (ralts?) in the daycare center. Now go get a pokémon that has the flame body ability. It should be one of the following (Tip: use the final evolution in case you run into a dangerous pokémon).


Ponyta/Rapidash (NOT GALARIAN)
Litwick/Lampent/Chandelure
Carkoal/Coalossoal
Centiskorch

And remember, these pokémon aren't guaranteed to have these abilities so make sure to check (Also, Coalossal's pokedex entries say it is very gentle, so i think it's sweet when a coalossal is helping to incubate these little eggs). The Flame Body ability makes eggs hatch faster, so trust me, it's worth it.

Remove everyone on your team, except for the pokémon with flame body, and head back to the day care center, and run around and recieve the eggs from the woman there until you have five, enough to fill your party. Now run around, collect eggs, run around, collect eggs, and keep doing that until you have a shiny. Enjoy the shiny ;)

*Experimentation & Notes*
A couple things to note.


Max raid battles don't take Shiny Charms, Number Battled, and Battle Chain into account, so good luck getting a shiny gmax pokémon :c
Pokémon from random encounters can be Chained/Shiny Charms/Number Battled but it's far less efficient and it's very easy to break your catch chain. At least pokémon that you battled will appear more easily.
It's a shame but The starter pokémon are shiny locked (So are the Toxel, Charmander, Pikachu, Eevee and every other pokémon you receive as a gift). Meaning you have to breed for them. Not to mention The Legendary pokémon are shiny locked too and you can't breed them.
More experimentation when i feel like it


*A few words*
Thanks for reading this guide. I really hope you enjoy all the shinies you get. If you notice any errors, or problems with the information, please tell me. Thanks.



-Indigo

                            Most, if not all of the data in this guide came from Serebii.net so i think i definitely need to thank them for this information.


----------



## IndigoClaudia (Apr 28, 2020)

Changelog.
-Added Experimentation and notes section.
-I knew i was forgetting something! Square shinies!


----------



## Lord Mewtwo (Jul 11, 2020)

This is such a fantastically thorough article that I hate to bring this up but feel it would be unfair if I did not.

Perhaps it's been fixed along with the DLC update but I was told on Youtube 5 months ago whilst attempting to hunt Rookidee and Wooloo that the wild odds are glitched into near non-existence.
Apparently the increased odds only affect 3% of encounters meaning each time you encountered the Pokemon your hunting you'd have a 3% of it having the increased odds.

I can confirm that something was up at the time of this exchange as I'd chained at least 1000 Rookidee (BTW, the Pokedex counts up to 999) and never encountered a shiny when statistically I should have encountered at least one.

Breeding odds, however, are fine and I got my shiny Rookidee that way as well as a shiny Cinderace and two shiny Eevees. Charmander and Grookie are on their way. Each only took a couple of weeks which in my experience isn't bad at all.


----------

